January 07, 2019

CBS News - Tough Challenge Taking on ABC's David Muir

On the 6:30 P.M. News on ABC, anchor David Muir has become the youthful version of Walter Cronkite.

Muir is able to lead the nation in sorting out the events of the day. You bet, he is a father figure.

That's why we tune into ABC rather than CBS. In addition, the pacing and visuals for the ABC news are done perfectly.

Therefore, the incoming head of CBS News Susan Zirinsky will have to transcend the aura surrounding Muir. As Joe Flint reports in The Wall Street Journal, CBS has declining ratings since Charlie Rose was ousted. Zirinsky's job number-one is to boost them.

That means she will have to poach some of Muir's viewers. After all, the size of the audience for network evening news is not a growth area.

Yes, Muir is an institution, as much as Cronkite had been. Her best shot is to revamp the format of the news. That will create a whole new genre for presenting news. Initially lots of folks will tune in out of curiosity. They might or might not stay.

If Zirinsky does reimagine evening news, then that could present an authentic threat to Muir.